Striving for Safe and Sustainable Flight Operations

West Chun

Vice President of Operations • Sino Jet Management Limited (Hong Kong)

Mr. Chun joined Sino Jet in 2012, and is the Vice President of Operations of Sino Jet Hong Kong. He is responsible for leading Sino Jet Hong Kong’s Flight Operation Centre, fostering and reforming fleet management strategies, supervising all operations resources and flight planning management, as well as being responsible for crew training and license applications.

He graduated from the University of Strathclyde in the UK, as well as from the French National School of Civil Aviation. He holds a Dispatcher License from United States Federal Aviation Administration, has professional qualifications in aviation safety management systems and risk assessment, and flight crew duty time management. Before joining Sino Jet, Mr. Chun was responsible for the daily operational management of commercial airlines, and for many years worked as a supervisor for a major European private aviation company based in Asia. He is also experienced in different aviation fields including passenger services, air cargo, and airport operations.

Mr. Chun supports educating young people on careers in business and general aviation. He has been teaching and speaking in various tertiary colleges, institutions, and events to train up more professionals in the industry and nurture the industry’s future talent stream.

1. In 2018, Sino Jet obtained the IS-BAO Stage 3 certification – the highest level of safety recognition in business aviation internationally and subsequently passed the renewal again in 2021. How does Sino Jet continue to maintain the highest safety standards?

Safety remains the corporate culture of Sino Jet, and Sino Jet’s pursuit of continuous improvement in safety is practiced in all aspects of the company’s operations.

Operational capability – Sino Jet holds China, the United States, Europe, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Aruba Islands, Isle of Man, Guernsey, San Marino and other aircraft operational management and maintenance engineering qualifications; and, global operational management and maintenance qualification licenses. Among business jet companies in China, Sino Jet holds the largest number of operation and maintenance licenses, operates a fleet with the widest range of aircraft registrations, which lays a solid foundation for the safe operation of the company.

Integrated information management – Complex matters can be better managed by standardisation and systematic management. This is what Sino Jet specialises in and attributes its safe operation to advanced scientific and technological information technology. Sino Jet affiliates an established software system development company, which excels in building advanced, comprehensive and mature information management systems in the business jet industry, developed products include aircraft operation systems, maintenance engineering management systems, safety management systems, flight quality monitoring systems and other aircraft process management systems. Each of these systems features a high degree of interconnectivity, through information integration, every link and every detail of each aircraft in its whole life cycle is efficiently documented, to uphold the quality of its safe operation and high level of traceability of the entire management process.

Introduced a professional weather monitoring system and aircraft positioning system – Sino Jet understands weather plays a key role in aviation safety. To be able to accurately grasp weather information and be able to access real-time operational information about the aircraft, to make flights even safer. The global satellite positioning system can precisely calculate aircraft positions by using multilateration, which uses regular transmission data from satellites, and the professional weather monitoring system to supply weather trends in global flight regions and airports.

With reliable information feeds, coupled with reasonable adjustments to the flight plan, the safety of flight operations can be secured. Sino Jet’s aircraft positioning system has the capability to accurately reflect 4D information about the tracked aircraft – the aircraft status can be accurately monitored and displayed on the system at any time and any place (3D: longitude, latitude, altitude).

2. Could business jet management affect the monetary value of a business jet?

As an industry benchmark, Sino Jet often emphasises the important concept of financial asset management in providing business jet management services to preserve the valuable asset of its clients.

Full life cycle management: From management proposal, purchase inspection, aircraft delivery, daily operations, maintenance troubleshooting, aircraft inspections, asset disposal, etc., Sino Jet provides a full life cycle management service for business jet owners, accurately assessing customer needs and accurately evaluating aircraft conditions, to tailor suitable operation plans so that customers can enjoy the maximum level of protection in safety and security when they travel, whilst upholding the maximum value of their aircraft assets.

Ensuring asset value preservation: In the aircraft trading market, the aircraft fuselage, maintenance, related equipment and archival information could directly affect the valuation of an aircraft. This is why it is important, that from receiving the aircraft, Sino Jet ensures compliance, integrity and traceability at every step of the management process in terms of safety, applicability, value preservation, economy and other aspects.

Sino Jet maintains close contact with aircraft manufacturers and other operators, repeatedly crosschecks and exchanges aircraft information, ensures that maintenance records, maintenance guidance requirements, flight records, and technical records are up-to-date and complete. So that when an aircraft comes to transfer of ownership or change of registration, it remains in good condition and the process can be completed professionally in a wholesome approach; or when it finally comes to asset disposal, the transaction will be completed in an efficient manner at the most reasonable price.

3. In the process of flight operations, how does the Sino Jet Flight Operations Centre safeguard the safe travel of its clients?

Sino Jet Flight Operations Centre operates 24 hours a day with safety in mind, to exercise prudence and focus on providing operational support for every flight with its every strength.

When we formulate flight plans. We make use of our aircraft dispatch and crew management systems, Jeppesen and NAVBLUE professional flight plan system, etc., that meet the requirements of the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Federal Aviation Administration; in addition to the most advanced communication equipment and maintaining close contact with meteorological and civil aviation units from various countries.

Sino Jet has operating bases and offices in 20 cities internationally and takes advantage of utilising available resources within its network to service its domestic and international flights. Our international team works tirelessly to coordinate with our partners to support our fleet operations, aircraft scheduling and crew operations, and ensure that all operations are performed safely, legally and flexibly under applicable regulations.

Our team members are very well experienced in business aviation and adheres strictly to all applicable safety procedures; additionally, they receive regular training in flight scheduling and dispatch, aviation safety, business jet operations, etc to ensure their skills are up to date. Prior to each flight, the aircraft status is comprehensively assessed, the departure, destination and diversion airports are all planned in detail and monitored, as are other aspects, including weather conditions, airspace restrictions, crew duty and rest time to ensure operational safety.

Furthermore, we have established a global network of operations and auxiliary resources. We have our own affiliated aviation ground handling agency, Fareast Aviation Service Co., that works closely with local FBOs and local agents. When we select our local ground handling partners, in addition to their international standard certifications such as IS-BAH, we conduct annual evaluations in each region to analyse the service standards and the availability and accessibility of airport resources, so that we can consistently uphold and improve our operational efficiency and service quality, and ultimately safeguard our every safe and smooth flight.

4. Amid the challenging pandemic situation in Hong Kong, how does the Flight Operations Centre of Sino Jet Hong Kong maintain its operational advantage?

Sino Jet has increased its investments in strengthening its internet and remote working capabilities, making the best use of the latest technology. Sino Jet has also adopted flexible working arrangements, formulated clear performance indicators, policies and procedures, and setup remote office systems all to help its team of professionals continue working efficiently in any safe environment.

Sino Jet Hong Kong has also setup a backup operations control centre. The whole team of staff are sent to work in different shifts and locations to reduce exposure of every staff on duty. This mixed work mode and remote work arrangement have matured over time, Sino Jet has proven to remain highly responsive to any abrupt changes in aircraft plans or requests and last-minute cancellations.

Sino Jet has many domestic and foreign service resources. During the epidemic, some of our clients have opted to travel to several uncharted destinations, and we have always managed to efficiently arrange a trusted reception staff locally to provide a seamless and quality travel experience.

5. Green Aviation appears to be the future, how is Sino Jet preparing for this?

Sino Jet actively answered the call for a Green Aviation strategy. Over the past few years, we have adopted several measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as the launch of energy conservation and emission reduction initiatives to our employees, establishing a paperless office, and the use of electronic flight bags (EFBs).

Recently, have imported our own Dassault Falcon 7X business jet from France, and we successfully achieved a “carbon neutral” flight in the delivery process by taking low-carbon emission reduction measures and offsetting China Certified Emission Reductions. It was the first “Carbon Neutral” flight in the history of business aviation in China.

Looking ahead, Sino Jet will continue its commitment with its advocated business jet information management method, working closely with its carbon management consultant to formulate a “carbon management” system to achieve better energy conservation and emission reduction scientifically, through standardisation, and quantifiable and traceable methods. Sino Jet will soon be launching “carbon neutral” flight services, bringing the “green flight” option to the consumers and the industry. As a fulfilment of its corporate social responsibility, Sino Jet wishes to continue to lead more business jet users and partners to accelerate their pace of carbon neutrality.

Sino Jet Management Limited (Hong Kong)